Are there English-speaking doctors in El Valle de Anton, Panama?
Neil Stein - Panama Paraiso
El Valle, Panama, being just a small community, has one major medical clinic for the populace and one excellent dentist. The dentist claims not to speak English, but in reality she understands just about everything I say to her once my Spanish fails me. After all, her Panamanian husband lived in Atlanta for fourteen years.
The only time I was in the medical clinic, I found the doctor who attended me spoke excellent English.
El Valle, Panama, being just a small community, has one major medical clinic for the populace and one excellent dentist. The dentist claims not to speak English, but in reality she understands just about everything I say to her once my Spanish fails me. After all, her Panamanian husband lived in Atlanta for fourteen years.
The only time I was in the medical clinic, I found the doctor who attended me spoke excellent English.
In the event one has a serious problem, the best thing to do is drive down the hill to Coronado (between 25 - 30 miles away) where almost all the doctors speak English.
Posted January 6, 2014
Bill Brunner
The only regularly practicing doctors we have in El Valle de Anton are at the government-run Ministry of Health Clinic, which has two or three resident doctors who I doubt speak English. If you lived in El Valle and wanted a doctor who spoke English, the closest you would find them would probably be in Coronado, which is about 40 to 45 minutes away by car. In Coronado if you go to the San Fernando Clinic (which is a satellite of one of the 3 best hospitals in the country of...
The only regularly practicing doctors we have in El Valle de Anton are at the government-run Ministry of Health Clinic, which has two or three resident doctors who I doubt speak English. If you lived in El Valle and wanted a doctor who spoke English, the closest you would find them would probably be in Coronado, which is about 40 to 45 minutes away by car. In Coronado if you go to the San Fernando Clinic (which is a satellite of one of the 3 best hospitals in the country of Panama), if they can’t treat you there, they are going to stabilize you and then send you over to their hospital in Panama City, which is about two hours away by car and where they have even more English-speaking doctors.
There are doctors in El Valle who are “weekenders” here, which means that they have a home in El Valle that they may go to on the weekends, but during the week, they live and practice in Panama City. I put them in “the country club set”. They do speak English but they are not practicing up here. El Valle is about 2 hours from Panama City by car and these physicians who are weekenders here are not going to go back and forth to practice.
Having said that, however, if you establish a doctor-patient relationship with one of the private doctors who speaks English and who has a weekend house up here in El Valle, then you can see that doctor in El Valle. For example, there was one time when one of the expats in El Valle was having some health problems. I put her in touch with my doctor who has a house up here in El Valle and he went over to her house for a house call. He made some recommendations for her to follow up with some lab tests and either to go over to see him (he is an internist) or to see a neurologist in Panama City. These sorts of things happen but these guys are not hanging out a shingle here in El Valle. He did it as a personal favour to me but of course it might end up with him having a patient relationship with this person, too.
Most of the physicians who have a second home in El Valle would have their primary residence in Panama City and that is generally speaking where they would have their practice. In the case of my own doctor, unless he does me or someone else he knows a personal favour or he has an established relationship with a patient here, he disengages from his practice for all intents and purposes when he comes up here on weekends.
(For a more complete description of healthcare in El Valle, please see my answer under “How good are the medical centers, hospitals and health clinics in El Valle de Anton, Panama, and how close are they?”)
Posted August 26, 2014
Bill Brunner
The only regularly practicing doctors we have in El Valle de Anton are at the government-run Ministry of Health Clinic, which has two or three resident doctors who I doubt speak English. If you lived in El Valle and wanted a doctor who spoke English, the closest you would find them would probably be in Coronado, which is about 40 to 45 minutes away by car. In Coronado if you go to the San Fernando Clinic (which is a satellite of one of the 3 best hospitals in the country of...
The only regularly practicing doctors we have in El Valle de Anton are at the government-run Ministry of Health Clinic, which has two or three resident doctors who I doubt speak English. If you lived in El Valle and wanted a doctor who spoke English, the closest you would find them would probably be in Coronado, which is about 40 to 45 minutes away by car. In Coronado if you go to the San Fernando Clinic (which is a satellite of one of the 3 best hospitals in the country of Panama), if they can’t treat you there, they are going to stabilize you and then send you over to their hospital in Panama City, which is about two hours away by car and where they have even more English-speaking doctors.
There are doctors in El Valle who are “weekenders” here, which means that they have a home in El Valle that they may go to on the weekends, but during the week, they live and practice in Panama City. I put them in “the country club set”. They do speak English but they are not practicing up here. El Valle is about 2 hours from Panama City by car and these physicians who are weekenders here are not going to go back and forth to practice.
Having said that, however, if you establish a doctor-patient relationship with one of the private doctors who speaks English and who has a weekend house up here in El Valle, then you can see that doctor in El Valle. For example, there was one time when one of the expats in El Valle was having some health problems. I put her in touch with my doctor who has a house up here in El Valle and he went over to her house for a house call. He made some recommendations for her to follow up with some lab tests and either to go over to see him (he is an internist) or to see a neurologist in Panama City. These sorts of things happen but these guys are not hanging out a shingle here in El Valle. He did it as a personal favour to me but of course it might end up with him having a patient relationship with this person, too.
Most of the physicians who have a second home in El Valle would have their primary residence in Panama City and that is generally speaking where they would have their practice. In the case of my own doctor, unless he does me or someone else he knows a personal favour or he has an established relationship with a patient here, he disengages from his practice for all intents and purposes when he comes up here on weekends.
Posted August 31, 2014
Tara Crellin - Dlaaya
I don’t think there are English-speaking doctors in El Valle de Anton. However, I haven’t been to a doctor in El Valle so I am not sure. When we had to go to the doctor, we drove down into Coronado (where they have a very good doctor named Doctor Nevy, who speaks perfect English. They also have specialists in Coronado that you can go to if you need one. They have dermatologists, cardiologists, etc., who rotate through that office so they come...
I don’t think there are English-speaking doctors in El Valle de Anton. However, I haven’t been to a doctor in El Valle so I am not sure. When we had to go to the doctor, we drove down into Coronado (where they have a very good doctor named Doctor Nevy, who speaks perfect English. They also have specialists in Coronado that you can go to if you need one. They have dermatologists, cardiologists, etc., who rotate through that office so they come once every month or once every two months.
I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old and our doctor is great with kids. When we go to the doctor’s clinic, we drive for only about 10 minutes from our house, because we live in between El Valle and Coronado. If you are coming from downtown El Valle, it is only a 40 to 45-minute drive to Coronado.
Most of the doctors in Coronado are English-speaking. They have the San Fernando Hospital, which is a highly thought of private hospital where all the doctors there speak English. Doctor Nevy is located in a different clinic. It is quite easy to find English-speaking doctors around Coronado.
(Pictured: Tara Crellin with daughter in Panama.)
Posted April 2, 2016